Advantages/Disadvantages of Big Data for Society

An advantage of big data for society is that it has driven a variety of aspects of society to be more efficient and advanced, including transport, health care and national security. Improvements have been made through the analysis of data collected regarding transport routes that are used in large cities to provide more services for busier routes and a better quality of transportation. Health care has significantly improved through data processed by health service officials to better understand and identify health concerns or issues and then treat those issues more appropriately. Lastly, national security has improved through the analysis of data related to crime and terrorism statistics where patterns and trends help prevent attacks in major cities.

A disadvantage of big data for society is that it has allowed companies to gain a greater insight into the personal lives of anyone who uses services or applications on the web or other networks, which could lead to a lack (or invasion) of privacy. Often the terms and conditions of which data is collected and stored to process by companies and organisations is found in the small print of very lengthy and complex documents detailing why they collect personal data and what it is used for. This can be easy to skip past and I believe if everyone was to carefully read these notices then as a society in general we would think twice about handing over personal data to big companies.

References:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2016/09/23/another-side-of-big-data-big-data-for-social-good/#:~:text=There%20have%20been%20many%20well,%2C%20learn%20faster%2C%20execute%20smarter.